![]() “With my parents, I was still living in the family home, so they had to interact with me as they usually would, but there was a definite atmosphere. If they see you on the street, they will cross to the other side rather than speak to you, so you have to get used to that. Maybe if I’d been on my own, I would never have asked.”Īs soon as she left, Laetitia’s life changed: “Everyone you've known and grown up with shuns you. ![]() I had my boyfriend, so I knew there was someone to support me. They tried to talk me out of it, but I insisted. “I had been in front of them twice previously for various things, as I was not an obedient child. Laetitia says she was brought before three elders known as a judicial committee, who tried to convince her not to leave Jehovah’s Witnesses before the disfellowshipping. “They feel that celebrating birthdays places you upon a pedestal and the only person you should honour is God.” (Image: courtesy of Laetitia Latham Jones) 2 of 12 We didn't celebrate Christmas, birthdays, or Easter because we were taught they had Pagan origins. “At school, I was kept out of religious assemblies and religious studies. I had a really good argument for evolution, and for not having or giving blood transfusions – even if it is for a family member.”īut preaching on Christmas Day was not the only thing that made Laetitia’s childhood different than most. I was trained with good arguments for each subject that could be raised. “By the time I was eight years old, I was out preaching on my own, with my parents calling on other homes in the same street. She remembers a man shouting at her father, saying that his children should be at home opening presents rather than knocking on doors. She recalls being taken out to preach every Christmas Day, something she hated because they received a lot of negative responses. Now, hoping to help others who have been shunned and left isolated after leaving religious groups, Laetitia has spoken out about what happens when you say you want to leave.Īs a child, Laetitia was involved from the start. In recent years, many former Jehovah’s Witnesses have described the religion as being cult-like, but fearing repercussions, most have done so anonymously. Laetitia Latham Jones, from St Buryan near Penzance, recently qualified as a crisis and trauma counsellor and set up Taking The Helm, which provides counselling for everyone from victims of abuse, to survivors of natural disasters.īut it is those who have left religious cults that Laetitia wishes to specialise in helping, drawing on her own childhood experience and being disfellowshipped from Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religion which she describes as having the traits of a cult. A woman in West Cornwall is using her traumatic experience of leaving Jehovah’s Witnesses, after being raised as one, to offer a new counselling service for former members of religious cults.
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